Hey, look — the company that is supposed to kill Apple just hit a wall

While it tried to frame the news as a positive, the truth is that
it's worrisome for the company.

As you can see in
this chart above from Quartz, Xiaomi sales have flatlined on
a sequential basis. This is surprising since Xiaomi has entered a
number of new markets in the past year, including India and
Brazil.

Xiaomi wanted to sell 100 million phones this year. It's possible
that happens if it releases a strong slate of phones in the back
half of the year, but it seems unlikely.

Xiaomi's slowdown makes Apple's year seem even more impressive by
comparison.

In the first three months of the year, Apple sold 61.2 million
iPhones, posting a 40% growth rate. Analysts are estimating Apple
sells 48 million iPhones in the June quarter, which would mean
Apple sells ~109 million phones in the first half of the year,
good for a 40% jump in sales.

If Apple meets expectations, its first half will be better than
Xiaomi's.

Xiaomi

This is astounding since Xiaomi sells low-cost, but high-quality
phones. Its phones go for ~$100-$300, while iPhones go for
~$650-$1,000.

Arguably, the two companies aren't perfect comparisons since
Apple sells everywhere, and Xiaomi has been pretty much confined
to China. But, even in China, Apple is outperforming Xiaomi.
Apple had the lead in the first quarter of 2015 in China with
14.5% of the smartphone shipments, according to IDC. Xiaomi had
13.5% of the smartphone shipments. In the first three months of
2015, iPhone sales were up 70% in the China region, according to
Apple CEO Tim Cook.

This could just be a small bump on the road for Xiaomi. Or, it
could be the end of the road. Selling smartphones is a crazy hard
business right now. Basically only Apple and Samsung are making
money.

Apple is the only
smartphone maker growing profit shareBI Intelligence

Apple is doing well because it has the best software with iOS,
the best hardware with the iPhone, and the strongest global brand
of any company.

All other major smartphone makers rely on Android, which gives
them little room to differentiate. Xiaomi has carved out a strong
brand for itself in China, but thus far it seems to be struggling
to cultivate the same level of fanatical devotion elsewhere in
the world.